Yellow Dog Republicans

Nothing describes the current state of the Republican party and its homogenous, march-in-step base than the research below. Facts as normal people consider them are irrelevant to the GOP base, those who proudly say “I’m a Repubican!” If there were a yellow dog on the ballot running against a Democrat, these people would vote for the dog.

Hoffman’s idea is based on a study he and colleagues did of nearly 50 participants, who were all Republican and reported believing in the link between the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and Saddam Hussein. Participants were given the mounting evidence that no link existed and then asked to justify their belief.

All but one held onto the belief, using a variety of so-called motivated reasoning strategies. “Motivated reasoning is essentially starting with a conclusion you hope to reach and then selectively evaluating evidence in order to reach that conclusion,” explained Hoffman’s colleague, sociologist Andrew Perrin of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

For instance, some participants used a backward chain of reasoning in which the individual supported the decision to go to war and so assumed any evidence necessary to support that decision, including the link between 9/11 and Hussein.

Their research is published in the most recent issue of the journal Sociological Inquiry.